May 9/99 12:09 pm - St Wendel Men's XC results and Story

Posted by Editor on 05/9/99

Men's Race Story

By the end of the second (of 7) laps a lead group of 5 had formed, consisting of Bas Van Dooren (Be-One), Filip Meirhaeghe (Mt Dew-Specialized), Dario Acquaroli (ATB Bianchi Martini), Miguel Martinez (Full Dynamix) and Michael Rasmussen (Gary Fisher-Saab). A chase group with Thomas Frischknecht (Ritchey-Yahoo!), Rune Hoydahl (Giant), Cadel Evans (Volvo-Cannondale), Roel Paulissen (American Eagle), Christophe Dupouey (Sunn) and Dominique Arnould (Giant) were just behind, but dropping back. A lap later Meirhaeghe had made his race winning move, and had 30 seconds on the 4 chasers. The second chase group was a further 1:15 in arrears (and had been joined by Christoph Sauser of Volvo-Cannondale). Martinez and Van Dooren dropped the other two chasers, who were caught by the splintering chase group in the sixth lap. At this point Hoydahl had been dropped by a few seconds, and Evans, Dupouey and Arnould were over a minute back on the Frischknecht/Sauser group. While Meirhaeghe cruised in for his victory, Van Dooren had dropped Martinez in the 6th lap, and finished over a minute up on the French rider. Sauser dropped Frischknecht, Paulissen, Acquaroli and Rasmussen (who finished in that order) in the last lap, and was catching up time on Martinez. However, the 1998 Under-23 World Champion was able to hold him off. World Cup leader Evans struggled in in 11th spot, almost 5 minutes down on the winner.

In the Canadian contingent, Seamus McGrath (Haro) was at the forefront, riding consistently around 13th-15th place. However, in the last few laps he started to slide backwards, ending up 24th. Roland Green (GT) was in the mid-30s until the end of the 5th lap, when he dropped back to the 50s (eventually finishing 55th). While Green was dropping back, Andreas Hestler (Polo Sport) was gradually moving up, to end up in 34th place. Chris Sheppard (Catera-Klein) had a poor start, and quickly fell off the pace, eventually dropping out around the 5th lap. Neil Grover (GM-Rocky Mountain) was 71st, Peter Wedge (Mapei-Kona) 76th, Mathieu Toulouse (Ford-Devinci) 97th and Ryder Hesjedal (Gary Fisher-Saab) 115th. Tinker Juarez was the top American, in 38th place.